Main Task- Print Music Magazine Research and Planning

1. Main Task- Print Music Magazine Research and Planning Josh Robinson

2. My Music Magazine- Basics • My music magazine is going to be called ‘The Middle-Mag’. My magazine is going to be an alternative rock magazine. • This magazine will feature bands who a lot of people like and the good thing about this genre of music is that it isn’t aimed at a minority. The bands that may be featured are MGMT, Two Door Cinema Club, The Script and maybe others. Most of those bands have at least 1 of their songs that almost everyone likes, so they might be interested in reading some of the cover stories on them, so therefore buy the magazine.

3. Research of other magazinesMusic Magazine 1: NME Background info • By 1973 NME was selling almost 300,000 copies a week, ahead of weekly rivals, Melody Maker, Disc, Record Mirror and Sounds. • The NME is described as the biggest selling and most respected music weekly in the world, which means it’s very popular. • Their total circulation is around 33 thousand. Target Audience • Their audience is more general than other music magazines but is mostly rock band/pop. This means that boy band fans and lovers of rock would be the main audience that NME attracts. However, the genre of music magazine NME is, means that it appeals to a wider audience of both genders.

4. NME- Front Cover • The front cover of NME follows a certain pattern and style. It has an image of a band member/music artist near the middle of the cover with ‘NME’ written in red in the top left hand side. • The main cover lines are usually an interview with an artist and/or a quote from an artist in other media or the exclusive interview. All these features and patterns that NME do on the front cover of their magazine makes it distinct from other magazines.

5. Music Magazine 2: Top of the Pops Background • BBC Worldwide, London. Fortnightly. March 1995-Brand extension from the long-running television series, launched with Peter Loraine as editor. • Six months later, BBC TV announced the end of Top of the Pops, the world's longest running weekly music show (started in January 1964). The closure cast doubt over the magazine spin-off, whose sales had dropped to 96,576. However, with the demise of Smash Hits, TotP's sales recovered to 105,025 by 2007. • Their total circulation is around 98 thousand. Target Audience • Their audience is fans of boy bands or singers and is aimed at the fans of pop music, which is obvious considering the name of the magazine.

6. Top of the Pops- Front Cover • The front cover of Top of the pops also follows a certain pattern and style to make it distinct and suitable for their audience. • The writing of ‘top of the pops’ is always in bright pink and aims generally towards the female market. Pink is a more feminine colour and so it is used to appeal to their target audience. There is usually someone like Justin Bieber as the main image due to him being very popular with the mass female market. ‘top of the pops’ is written at the top in the centre which is quite ordinary and doesn't stand out. This is done deliberately to focus the attention on and emphasise the main image as it is the aspect of the front cover that will entice the audience want to buy it the most .

7. Front Cover Comparison • The character in the NME image is central and looking directly at the camera which is similar to the Top of the Pops magazine. • Both magazines main image bleed in to the title of the magazine. The image on ‘NME’ bleeds over the ‘E’ and the main image on ‘TOTP’ usually bleeds over ‘the’.

8. Front Cover Comparison • The NME magazine image is an image of a music artist with a serious expression on their face whereas on the cover of the Top of the Pops magazine the person in the image is relaxed and smiling. These images are different as both magazines are trying to aim towards different target audiences, so they need to have an image that is suitable for the magazine’s target audience.

9. My Music Magazine- Research • I researched 2 or 3 magazines covers and what audience they are aimed at, to get a few ideas. • I found out that people are really interested in bands and artists if they get interviewed because the audience want to find out more about their character; especially younger females.

10. My Music Magazine- Target Audience • I have set my target audience to teenagers mostly or people in their early 20s,(14-23 year olds), as my research showed me that this age group are more defined by music, and are most interested in the music life and private life of their favourite artists/bands. • This age group like to use slang and abbreviations, so calling my magazine ‘The Middle-Mag’ is good because it rolls of the tongue easily and could be named and abbreviated as ‘T.M.M’.